Mayors And Councils Request Powers to Block Betting Shops
Councils and city mayors in the UK have called for the government to grant them new powers to quash the rise of betting shops on high streets up and down the country.
Betting shops could be blocked from opening by new council powers. © Dieuvain Musaghi, Unsplash
Key Facts:
- Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, is among those backing the new proposals
- 36 councils and two mayors have written to the government
- Current gambling laws called “desperately out of date”
- Number of gambling machines has surged since the pandemic
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, is among those to have signed a new letter with councils representing some 12 million people in the UK who have argued that current gambling laws are “desperately out of date”.
The Labour government committed to reform the gambling industry in its pre-election manifesto last year and has introduced a new statutory levy, the details of which were recently confirmed by the Gambling Commission.
Slot stake limits are also being introduced at online casinos, but the councils and city mayors have highlighted the expansion in the number of gambling machines on UK high streets.
Data shows the number of these machines, which have a win cap of £500, has shot up from around 170,000 before the COVID-19 pandemic to over 200,000 today.
Targeting Vulnerable People
The letter to the government was led by Brent Council, with its deputy leader Mili Patel arguing that betting companies are targeting people on lower incomes.
Patel explained current gambling laws in the UK do not currently allow local communities to have “a say” on licensing applications for betting shops and gaming venues.
She told ITV News: “We’re not against gambling or gambling establishments. We’ve just had a load of concentration of them, that is the problem.”
“At the moment Harlesden’s average income is under £24,000 a year, which is well below the London average… so it’s strategically targeting vulnerable people.”
Really Dangerous Stuff
Campaigners have warned that slot machines in betting shops can be used by people who have taken steps to self-exclude themselves from online casinos and internet sports betting sites.
Will Prochaska, the former chief executive of Gambling with Lives, said: “We’re sometimes seeing people who are trying to recover from a gambling addiction online and they may have self-excluded from online forms of gambling, but they’re lured in by the shops on the high street.
“So they’re actually targeting addicts, this is really dangerous stuff that we’re talking about.”
Betting shops on UK high streets are restricted by law to four machines per venue, while they can also be found in venues such as casinos and bingo halls.
A spokesperson for the Betting and Gaming Council, which represents licensed gambling operators in the UK, noted that the recent NHS Health Survey for England found only 0.4% of the adult population are deemed to be problem gamblers.
